Ephemeral Sight through Transient Eyes
by Yudoku Kabe-no-Hana
Summary: Hinata Hyuga. Twenty-two. Born with anophthalmia, a condition in which one or both of the eyes do not form during fetal development. After the death of her family she was admitted to Konoha Regional Hospital. She is scheduled to undergo a specialized procedure developed by the reclusive Dr. Gaara Sabaku to implant artificial eyes and grant her lifelong wish. Rewrite of Eye Sight.


Ephemeral Sight through Transient Eyes

.

Hinata Hyuga. Twenty-two. Born with anophthalmia, a condition in which one or both of the eyes do not form during fetal development. After the death of her family she was admitted to Konoha Regional Hospital. She is scheduled to undergo a specialized procedure developed by the reclusive Dr. Gaara Sabaku to implant artificial eyes and grant her lifelong wish. Rewrite of Eye Sight.

.

.

As biological creatures there comes a time for us all when we lay down, close our eyes and succumb to the total darkness behind our eye lids.

We slip away into unconsciousness where our mind begins to create images and we dream.

Our dreams can be based on many different things, our wants and needs, our fears or even life events.

When the sun's light begins to shine through the haze of darkness we open our eyes.

Consciousness slips in and we begin a new day.

The light and dark are the cues that drive us.

We wake during the light of day; we sleep and dream in the dark of night.

However, what does one do when both their days and nights are filled with the same darkness?

When you rely on the social external cues of those around you.

Hinata Hyuga sleeps when her mother says it is time for bed.

She wakes when the maid arrives with tea and toast.

The time in between is spent learning, listening and imaging.

Trying desperately to build her own schema within her mind.

Hinata Hyuga dreams each night she allows herself to sleep.

But even in her dreams she sees total darkness.

She can only hear the gentle sounds of her mother's voice, only smell the soft lilac scent of her bedroom and feel for the deeply imprinted lines along her sketch book.

In her dreams, Hinata remembers the sound of her mother's voice.

She remembers her words and plays them over and over in her mind.

The final coherent string of words are the sounds she strive to remember because in reality the last sound she'd ever heard her mother make was an ear shattering screech, garbled by the blood welling into her throat.

_Come Hinata, it's time for dinner with your uncle… _

That evening Hinata Hyuga, the heiress born blind, went through the same motions as she did every other day.

Her mother holds her hand as she steps into the shoes waiting beside her bed and they carefully make their way down the staircase leading to the front door.

Her mother was the only source of comfort in her life.

She was the only person who'd been wiling to care for the girl and instill a sense of confidence in her.

Her younger sister, Hanabi, had no time to spend with her sister as she had taken Hinata's place as heiress to the Hyuga fortune.

Hiashi Hyuga, her father, had even less time to spend with his burden of a daughter.

Hinata grips tightly to her mother's hand while her free palm slides down the rail of the stairs.

She had traced the designed lines with her fingers so many times that she'd imagined it perfectly in her own dark world.

She could count and predict each small bump in the wood railing that had taken years of abuse from her family.

She still holds tightly to her mother's hand as they near the car, already humming quietly.

Every motion was automatic.

After nineteen years of the same routines, her body had learned where everything was.

She didn't think about the strange flutter deep in her stomach as she reaches for the car door and slides in.

A round of seat belt clicks splash in her stomach like acid.

It was a strange feeling but she ignored it which was a decision she would forever regret.

Hinata leans her forehead on the cold glass of the window as the hunk of metal smoothly moves down the roads.

She chants her usual mantra _please Kami, grant me sight_.

Hoping that if she prayed hard enough that she'd open her eyes and be greeted with sunlight at that very moment.

It never happened.

Her thoughts are interrupted when she feels her body jerked roughly.

She feels her head bounce against the glass window and things begin to shift suddenly.

Her kinesthetic senses were thrown off and her mind began to spin in sync with the car her body was trapped in.

She heard the contents of the car being tossed around, papers, pens and cell phones knocking against the windows and roof.

The shrill scream of her younger sister jerked her body into action.

Her only reaction to the new sense of dread was to grasp tightly to the handle of the car door, balling herself up tightly.

She didn't know what was happening, just that something was wrong.

So very wrong.

Her family's screams and the way her stomach was trying to crawl its way up her throat burned into her mind.

It felt like the time her cousin Neji had taken her to the fair and they had gone on a roller coaster.

She had to act "natural" because she knew that if they knew she was blind, they wouldn't let her on.

Neji helped her into her seat and tied her in but within a few seconds her stomach was upside down and her world was shaken.

There was nothing to hold on to on that rollercoaster … at least here in the car, she had something to grasp and that was the only thing she could be thankful for.

The rattling of metal, the shattering of glass, the shrill screams of her mother reverberate within her mind.

The sounds make her hands shake and her heart beats faster even though it seems that the car had finally stopped moving.

_Excuse me, I'm sorry Hinata…. Hinata? … Hinata, it's time to wake up…_ a deep voice crooned

It sent a chill down her spine.

Was she dead?

Did she _finally_ die?

_Hinata, it's time to wake up…_ the gentle pressure of a warm hand on her shoulder jolted her awake.

She sucked in a breath and gripped the sheets tightly, her eyes still squeezed shut and heart hammering in her chest.

A string of words ran through her mind as realization sunk in.

_Hospital, car crash, surgery, doctors, needles, blind, needles, darkness- STOP. _

Her delicate hand reached up to feel the warm one rested on her shoulder.

It was the same soft, dry hand that woke her nearly every morning, an ice cold watch attached to the wrist.

"Doctor… Hatake…" she breathed.

"Good morning, Hinata!" he beamed brightly, she could hear the serene smile in his voice.

"I am here this morning with a few interns and your ophthalmologist, Dr. Sabaku, who is going to be performing your surgery today. Now, no worries. I know he's a stranger so I'll be there the entire time as well. You are in very good hands, Hinata, even with a surgery as experimental as this one."

She smiled softly.

There was no doubt that the doctors at Konoha Regional Hospital were skilled and well trained.

She also had no doubt that anyone would be nervous if they found themselves within her current circumstances.

The interns had begun their recitation of her lengthy chart and medical history, a speech that Hinata knew like the back of her hand.

She couldn't help but cling to the remanence of her fading dream.

It was painful but she always felt as though there was something she needed to remember.

An image that she hadn't yet put together in her mind, lines she hadn't yet learned.

She vaguely remembered the first nineteen years of her life.

The memories were foggy but the clear view was somewhere the iced window of her mind.

Growing up she had a sense of place, an emotional grounding.

Yet somehow within the last three years she found herself having to recite her chart to herself because sitting in the same bed, day in and day out, seemed like an unbearable nightmare.

Hyuga Hinata.

Twenty-two.

Born with a condition known as anophthalmia in which one or both of the eyes do not form while the fetus is in the womb.

Fitted with prosthetic eyes for cosmetic purposes when she was seven and has been the bane of her father's existence ever since.

That last part wasn't in her chart but somehow it always slipped into her mental speech as if it were written in ink with the rest.

She wasn't bothered by the prosthetics or even her father's disgust most days.

She survived it all with the help of her mother.

The kindest woman who had ever existed.

The woman who had taught Hinata everything she knew.

She read to her on a daily basis, taught her to speak, count and read braille.

Her mother had also shown her the greatest use of her other senses which lead to Hinata's talent with a sketch pad and pen.

With her fingers Hinata learned the lines and curves of her subject.

The lines and curved were then transcripted into lines on the blank slate of her mental visual field.

After much practice, her fingers were able to transfer the lines from her mind to the paper before her.

She recreated her environment through the sensation in her fingers.

Her skill was her only connection to the outside world.

It was the only thing that connected her to the realm beyond her darkness.

She could still faintly remember the praise her mother washed over her each day.

The pair of Hyuga women made the best of what they had.

But Hinata could draw until her fingers bled and it would never quell her desire of sight.

She'd grown tired of her dark world long ago and wanted more.

She wanted color and light.

But her parents claimed they had explored all of the medical options and there was nothing that could be done.

Her mother showered her with admiration and fueled her self-confidence.

Her mother made her feel like a person each time her father's presence made her wish herself away.

She wished for the gift of sight and she chanted her mantra every day.

_Please, Kami, grant me sight. _

She imaged what it would be like to see.

Often her dreams would give way and she wept tears of joy at the mere idea.

It had always been the only thing she ever wanted but in that moment, when she felt her body jerked in all different directions, her stomach clawing its way up her throat, her wish changed.

_Please, Kami, just let me live_

She clung to the hope of life that evening.

Even when the distorted screaming stopped and the sirens wailed in the distance, she still chanted.

Silently thankful she couldn't see the devastation surrounding her.

Silently thankful for the throbbing in her head and pain radiating from her legs to distract her from the eerie silence.

She couldn't help but feel cynical.

She'd prayed every day for the last nineteen years and her dream had never come true.

Perhaps she was on the ignore list of the great heavens above.

Why would they answer her now?

When she awoke in a hospital room nearly two weeks after the accident, the irony was palpable.

The gods had finally answered her prayers… but at what cost?

"-and within fourty-eight hours of the successful surgery, we will be seeing the bright and shining smile of our dear Hyuga." Dr. Hatake finished his own speech with a cheerful clap of his hands.

Hinata faked a slight smile.

Dr. Hatake had a habit of making shitty jokes and being cheerful about everything.

Ever since the first day he'd walked into her room he had been spouting about the beautiful day and how great it was to be alive.

She was never one to rain on anyone's parade but if she had been, she would have told him to stuff it where the sun don't shine… which in her world, was everywhere.

About six months ago she had been approached by Dr. Hatake.

He explained that there was a doctor in the hospital who had taken a special interest in her condition.

The mysterious doctor thought that he'd developed a way for her to gain vision.

She'd have to undergo a series of exploratory surgeries and tests for further development of the procedure but it seemed that this mysterious doctor had the answer for her.

A part of her screamed at herself for even considering the offer.

She was essentially a medical guinea pig but by the same token she had nothing else to live for.

Hinata had spent the last three years sitting in the same hospital bed.

After she'd recovered from the car accident the hospital had transferred her to a wing of the hospital similar to hospice care at the ripe age of nineteen.

She was only transferred back to general population when they began testing.

She was glad to be where most of the people were alive and breathing rather than on the brink of death.

It took a few months for her to shake the overwhelming scent and guise of impending death.

Besides, if this worked then she could be a medical breakthrough for other blind people in the future.

It was possible.

Her doctors wouldn't do anything that was completely impossible, they wouldn't doom her to death… right?

Worst case scenario, she died or wound up back in the hospital bed.

She had no choice but to believe in the good graces of her doctors so she tiredly agreed to the procedure.

After agreeing, she spent many nights alone, thinking and wondering why her prayers had been answered now.

Now that she had no family or loved ones she was given a chance at a new life.

A lonely life but a new one nonetheless.

She would have been a liar if she said she wasn't scared but it seemed the way her hands shook in her lap told it all.

"Hinata, I will be in the room during your surgery as I said but the primary doctor working on your will be Dr. Sabaku. He has studied your case extensively and has been preparing for this for years. He may not be friendly but it will be extremely important for him to be with you at all times in case there are any complications. He'll be here when you wake up and tend to all your post op needs. Do you understand?"

Hinata nodded.

It seemed that she was finally going to meet her mystery doctor.

The person who was going to change her life forever.

"Great! We will see you in the operating room!" Dr. Hatake barked a laugh at his own joke.

He always laughed at his own jokes.

Hinata couldn't help but wonder how many interns cracked a smile in hopes of earning brownie points with him.

The air in the room shifted as her companions slipped away and another single body stepped in.

"Good morning, Hinata. I'm Dr. Sarutobi, I will be administering your sedative here and then you'll be taken to the operating room. Are you ready?"

With no hesitation, she nodded.

There was no backing out now because everything was in place, save for her; the missing piece.

As the needle pierced her skin, prepping to dispense sedatives into her blood, her heart beat wildly and thoughts raced.

In the forty-five seconds it had taken her to fall asleep she had conjured a hundred questions.

Most of them were fleeting thoughts but a few were questions she'd been asking herself for nearly three years now and still had no answer.

_Is this going to work? _

_Who is Dr. Sabaku? _

_Why doesn't he speak at all? _

_What is going to be the first sight for my brand new eyes?_

* * *

AN: I would like to dedicate this first chapter to two of my dearest literary inspirations and two wonderful friends. _Voyna_ and _Fher34_.

I've said it once before but I'll say it again, you two are very special to me and you've helped me through my writing process time and time again.

You both are having a really tough time with school right now and I know it's stressful but just know that I'm always here for you!

Take care of yourselves, ladies!

I also wanna note that this chapter was kinda short compared future chapters, so expect more next time!

Please let me know what you all thought of this chapter! How do you like it compared to the old one (if you read the old one)?

Thanks again for all your support!


End file.
